


Date

by astrxd



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, fluff fluff fluff, i think i'm only really capable of writing fluff tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 04:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6359278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrxd/pseuds/astrxd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Cross posted on my tumblr!] Hiccup organizes a few... dates with Astrid. (Or, in other words, he offhandedly volunteers his girlfriend to train some younger vikings in the art of combat, and tries to be suave about it by organizing an actual date with her.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Date

**Author's Note:**

> This one was one of my more popular stories on tumblr, so I figured that it'd be one of the ones I post. :) I intend on posting all of my works here eventually, but I'm doing it bit by bit. Comments and kudos are much appreciated!

She was dismounting Stormfly when she heard it- the sound of many footsteps barreling towards her, of large weapons clanging, and of metal clashing with metal. Instead of battle cries and grunts, however, all she could make out was laughter and giggles between the calls of her name. Astrid exchanged glances with the dragon, reasonably perplexed with the crowd rushing towards her, and set a calm hand on the cheek of the Deadly Nadder. When the gaggle of little girls of varying ages finally reached her, all she could see were slightly heaving chests and wide, toothy grins staring up at her.

“Huh,” Astrid said. She cocked an eyebrow and folded her arms over her chest, thoroughly amused with the audience. “Did someone send an angry mob after me, or something?” Sure, she was a woman of duty and all that- but she _did_ know her way around children. Young, impressionable children. It was moments like these that Astrid was more diligent than ever about being a good role model, but a little jesting never hurt. A chorus of giggles left the girls, before one piped up.

“Hiccup said you’d show us how you use these!” the eldest, who was most likely eight or nine, spoke as she raised her wooden staff.

“Did he?” the Hofferson mused in response, the arch in her brow deepening. _That man was going to be the death of her, she was absolutely sure of it._

 

“Yeah! And how to do those flippy-things!” another chimed, before pushing herself forward in a strained forward roll. Astrid couldn’t do much to suppress the smirk tugging at her lips.

“So- let me get this straight. You kids want to spend your time learning how to fight, rather than fly a dragon?” Astrid inquired, the tone of her voice skeptical. When all she saw were furious nods, she grinned.

“You know how to do _both_ ,” another girl reasoned. “We wanna know how to do both, too!”

It was a pleasant surprise, Astrid supposed. With practically all of their society interwoven with dragons, less time was spent training the youth in how to _fight_ them. Rather, efforts were put into training the youth in how to _fly_ with them, and how to coexist with them. She knew that the longstanding tradition of raising warriors was not gone, but it had taken a bit of a backseat to dragons- not that it was a _bad_ thing.   
  
Dragons were integral to their future, dragons _were_ their future, and Astrid had no problem in assisting in teaching the youth of Berk about the magnificent creatures they valued so deeply. Times were incredibly different when Astrid was the age of the young girls. Even so, she found that it was reasonable that they would want to be capable of defending themselves, even in a time of peace. After a moment of contemplative silence, Astrid finally spoke.

“Alright, then. Meet me at the Dragon Academy in an hour- but _ask your parents first._ ”

A series of joyful whoops and triumphant cheers filled her ears as the children bid her farewell, dispersing in different directions, presumably to return home to convince their parents to allow them to swing dangerous weapons around under the tutelage of Astrid Hofferson.

She laughed to herself at the thought of what was to come in an hour, but her mind was currently elsewhere. Astrid threw a leg over Stormfly and got settled in her saddle once more, with the intent of finding the certain somebody who told a bunch of little girls that she’d teach them how to fight.

“C’mon, girl. Let’s go pay Dragon Boy a little visit.”

* * *

 

 

He was in the forge when she found him, busy hammering at Odin knew what. Astrid had greeted Toothless before entering the structure, which was several degrees hotter than it was outside. The warmth enveloped her like a blanket as soon as she stepped foot into the forge, and she was grateful. Hiccup didn’t seem to notice her entrance, but that was hardly an issue to her- he was busy, and she respected that. It didn’t keep her from stealthily sidling up beside the Haddock to place a hand on his shoulder, though. She felt him tense momentarily, but relax when he saw her.

“Astrid!” he chirped, briefly looking up from his work to lean over to peck her cheek. “Always a pleasure, milady. What’s up?” Astrid’s expression was dubious.

“Oh, nothing. I’ve got a date in an hour, that’s all,” she shrugged, carefully lifting up one of the metal rods from the table beside Hiccup, examining it with interest before setting it down, only to see Hiccup _bewildered._

“I- uh, a-a date? I’m so sorry- I didn’t, I completely _forgot-”_ he rambled, setting down his tools and grasping at the ties of his smock.

“Calm down, Hiccup,” Astrid spoke, her voice holding a teasing lilt to it. “It’s not with you.”

He looked even more surprised.

“I… W-Wait. Hold on. Astrid- _what?”_

“Hey, _you_ set me up for it!” she argued, grinning wickedly. He was so easy to joke around with, and she adored seeing the various expressions he’d contort his face into.

“I don’t- again, let me reiterate- _what?”_ Hiccup demanded, stepping forward to set his hands on her upper arms. His mouth was creased with deep worry, and those eyes- _Gods_ , his eyes- were pooling with absolute shock.

“Oh, so you don’t recall?” Astrid mock-pouted, setting her hands on the front of his chest. “You told a bunch of little girls that I’d train them.”

Hiccup furrowed his brow as he sifted through his memories, until recollection eased his tense features. “Oh!” he exclaimed, “ _ooooh.”_

Astrid only nodded, as if to say: ‘ _there you go. Good job, you did it. So proud of you.’_ Hiccup made a strangled, strange noise that seemed to involuntarily come from his throat before he pulled Astrid into a hug.

“My Gods, Astrid. I almost _died!_ ”

“Don’t be a big baby, Hiccup,” the blonde snorted, “I was only kidding.” She returned the embrace, before pulling away to peck him on the lips.

“Please don’t ever scare me like that again,” he begged, hands resting lovingly on her waist. Astrid’s grin broadened as she kissed him again, before slipping out of his grasp.

“No promises!” she sang, while Hiccup chased after her.

“ _Astrid,”_ he warned, huffing as he crossed his arms.

“Sharpen my axe?” she asked, knowing full well that Hiccup would say yes, despite her plentiful teasing. The Haddock sighed and nodded, giving the impression that it was a chore- when again, Astrid knew that it was most certainly not. She saw it in the thought and effort he put into the task- he put thought and effort into all of his tasks… but Astrid just _saw something there._ She returned to him moments later to hand off the weapon.

“It’s been a while,” Hiccup remarked, analyzing the slightly dull blade. Astrid shrugged.

“We’ve both been busy,” she reasoned as Hiccup prepped the grindstone.

“Very true,” he responded, already absorbed in her axe. Astrid had seen him do it countless times, and she was capable of doing it herself with a whetting stone, but asking Hiccup gave her an excuse to see him. Not that she _needed_ one, but it bought them some time. Based on the pace Hiccup was working at, Astrid knew that they had quite a bit of it. The Hofferson stood at Hiccup’s side once more: out of his way, but still in his bubble.

“How’ve you been?” Astrid inquired, her hand idly sitting on his hip.

“Alright, I s’pose. Busy, but we’ve already established that. What about you, milady?” Astrid already knew that apologizing for having him do this for her was a pointless waste of breath, so she didn’t.

“Good, m’babe,” she sighed, tracing circles with her thumb against skin hidden beneath thin, dyed wool.

“Tired?”

“Nope. Never.”

“I know,” Hiccup grinned and glanced at her from over his shoulder. It was a smile that made her utterly _giddy_ for an innumerable amount of reasons.

Astrid watched as Hiccup finished polishing her axe in silence, wordlessly admiring his skill with the smuggest little smile tickling the edges of her lips. After drawing a careful finger along the smoothened edge of the blade, he offered it to her, and she accepted it with a nod.

She stepped away and experimentally twirled the weapon in her hand, testing it out… even though she knew that it was perfect. Astrid slung the axe over her shoulder and Hiccup beamed at her proudly as he brushed off the front of his tunic.

“Flawless,” she remarked, sauntering closer towards the Haddock. “As usual.” She slid her hand atop his shoulder and pecked him on the cheek, though Hiccup only responded by looping his arm around her waist to pull her closer. She knew that it couldn’t be comfortable with the butt of her axe digging into his skin, but he held her regardless.

“So,” he mused, “where is this _date?”_

“ _Somewhere,”_ Astrid snorted.

“Somewhere, meaning at the cove? In three or four hours?”

Astrid grinned.

“...Yes, then and there.”

“And who might be meeting you at such a time and place?”

“Um, the person who literally just _asked_ me on that date?” Astrid rolled her eyes, poking Hiccup in the chest with a finger.

“Right, of course,” he murmured, leaning forward to press his lips to her forehead. Astrid sighed and allowed herself to slip her eyes shut as he tenderly kissed her. “So I’ll see you then?”

“Yes,” she smiled up at him, “you will.”

* * *

 

Hiccup knew that he said he’d meet Astrid at the cove, but he was much too tempted to see her working with the young girls of Berk. He could see the arena just sitting in the distance from behind the mask pulled over his head.

They were performing simple drills with wooden staffs. Instead of pretending the poles were dragons, they were practicing basic swings on training dummies. Astrid walked past each pupil with her own axe in hand, glinting in the last few rays of daylight.

Hiccup watched in silence, smiling himself.

It wasn’t long before she was kneeling before one of the girls with a hand pressed to her cheek. It looked as if she were comforting the child, seeing as the others had stopped in place, their staves lowered and dragging against the stone as they shuffled closer. The girl Astrid sat before was small; scrawny, even, and he was immediately brought back to the days of his own training alongside his peer group.

And he couldn’t be more happy to see that nobody had to go through the same struggle that he did, because the child’s friends- and Astrid- were huddled around her with warm smiles and comforting pats on the shoulder.

His vantage point in the sky was not enough for him, however. With a rub of his hand against Toothless’ cheek, the Night Fury dove forward like an arrow fired from a ballista piercing the air, only much more deadly. A sharp whistling noise filled Hiccup’s ears as he pressed his torso against Toothless’ back. The two were flying as a single unit, drilling through the atmosphere towards the arena in a steep nose dive. A series of quick (fancy) maneuvers later, and they were closing in on their destination. Their speed gradually slowed as they neared, but the moment that they landed, the arena erupted in cheers and whoops.   
  
Astrid was not cheering and whooping, however.  
  
She was giving him a look, the look that said “ _did you really have to show off, you dramatic little--”_

Hiccup shrugged in a nonchalant, “ _I don’t know what you’re talking about”_ manner as he pulled off his helmet, and Astrid shook her head.

“ _You’re so pretentious,”_ her eyeroll said as he greeted the young girls.

“ _You love me,”_ the grin that he momentarily flashed at her said back.

* * *

 

“ _I know,”_ her sigh said. “ _I really do.”_ It took a while to get Hiccup to leave. She enjoyed his company- she really did- but his _commentary_ was what drove her insane, especially when her pupils kept bursting into fits of uncontrollable laughter every now and then because Hiccup would made a snarky side comment. Little progress was made while he was present, but after shooing him away, Astrid managed to help the girls get the basics of swings and footwork down.

Only a few hours later, Astrid and Stormfly were touching down in the cove, where Hiccup and Toothless were already waiting. The Haddock was leaning against his dragon, analyzing a page in his notebook, and he didn’t look up at her until Stormfly tittered and Astrid cleared her throat. The Night Fury, once half asleep behind Hiccup, was alert and awake and wriggling away from his rider to greet the Deadly Nadder happily trotting forward.

“Hello, milady,” Hiccup grinned, snapping his notebook shut and setting it down in the grass as he pushed himself to his feet. Astrid folded her arms and met him halfway, though her eyes were (jokingly) narrowed and critical.

“Thanks for dropping in earlier,” she smiled, sarcastically taking on a saccharine sweet tone. “I adored having all of Berk’s little girls ask me if I was in ‘ _looooove’_ every two seconds.” Hiccup’s grin broadened, and he brazenly looped his arms around her waist.

“So? What did you say?” he eagerly questioned her. Astrid could not deny how much she adored seeing that eager grin take over his face. His eyes lit up when he spoke, and his shoulders shook with each word, despite his arms being still.

“Oh, shut up, babe,” Astrid snorted as wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “You know I love you.”

“But are you _in love_ with me?” he sincerely asked her.

“Absolutely,” she sighed happily, before pressing her lips to his own.


End file.
